This invention relates to an improved vertical oil filter crusher or compactor for aiding in satisfying environmental demands by providing inexpensive, easily operated means for removing used oil from oil filters.
There has long been a need for efficiently removing spent, dirty oil from used oil filters. Many efforts have been made to provide an efficient structure for this purpose. U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,812 illustrates an oil can crusher wherein an air cylinder has upper and lower end plates secured together by tie bolts. The air cylinder is carried by spaced uprights extending between an anvil for supporting an oil filter and a lower end plate of the air cylinder to act as guides for a plunger head for crushing the oil can. Thus, the air cylinder and crushing section are separate units which are joined together by the uprights as distinguished from an integral or unitary construction. Since the crusher is for an oil can rather than a filter, no provision is made for draining used oil. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,150,812, 3,835,768, 4,126,160, 4,771,686, 4,927,085 and 5,060,564 illustrate more complex structures for crushing used oil filters representing the state of the art. Oil filter crushers have also been provided utilizing air cylinders to which upright structural members have been welded longitudinally warping the air cylinder wall.